Evolution of tonal organization in music mirrors symbolic representation of perceptual reality. Part-1: Prehistoric

Abstract

This paper reveals the way in which musical pitch works as a peculiar form of cognition that reflects upon the organization of the surrounding world as perceived by majority of music users within a socio-cultural formation. The evidence from music theory, ethnography, archeology, organology, anthropology, psychoacoustics, and evolutionary biology is plotted against experimental evidence. Much of the methodology for this investigation comes from studies conducted within the territory of the former USSR. To date, this methodology has remained solely confined to Russian speaking scholars. A brief overview of pitch-set theory demonstrates the need to distinguish between vertical and horizontal harmony, laying out the framework for virtual music space that operates according to the perceptual laws of tonal gravity. Brought to life by bifurcation of music and speech, tonal gravity passed through eleven discrete stages of development until the onset of tonality in the seventeenth century. Each stage presents its own method of integration of separate musical tones into an auditory-cognitive unity. The theory of “melodic intonation” is set forth as a counterpart to harmonic theory of chords. Notions of tonality, modality, key, diatonicity, chromaticism, alteration, and modulation are defined in terms of their perception, and categorized according to the way in which they have developed historically. Tonal organization in music, and perspective organization in fine arts are explained as products of the same underlying mental process. Music seems to act as a unique medium of symbolic representation of reality through the concept of pitch. Tonal organization of pitch reflects the culture of thinking, adopted as a standard within a community of music users. Tonal organization might be a naturally formed system of optimizing individual perception of reality within a social group and its immediate environment, setting conventional standards of intellectual and emotional intelligence.

The Role of the Baldwin Effect in the Evolution of Human Musicality

“…This sensorimotor activity during listening to music leads in turns to emotional reactions (Sievers et al, 2013 ). Also, the recognition of pitch hierarchy causes measurable emotional reactions (Steinbeis et al, 2006 ; Koelsch et al, 2008 ; Mikutta et al, 2015 ), and perception of pitch changes (often described as “leaps” and “steps”) can lead to sensorimotor interpretation (Nikolsky, 2015 ). Since emotion is an evolutionarily old motivational mechanism (Toates, 1988 ), the function of which is to assess a potential danger or attractiveness of perceived stimuli (Panksepp, 1998 ), the tight connection between musical structure and emotions suggests the biological importance of this human specific interpretation of sound in terms of pitch and metric hierarchy.…”

“…After all, as long as one individual cannot use syntax in communication with another individual, the use of syntax by the latter is useless. Even with the use of music in the form of self-communication, as in the case of “personal song” in the musical cultures of Siberia, Far East, and Amerindian tribes (Nikolsky, 2015 ), the development of the abilities to organize music syntactically necessitates learning from another individual. However, the appearance of a new genetic trait in the population is usually a result of accidental mutation or recombination.…”

What Vowels Can Tell Us about the Evolution of Music

“…Moreover, we demonstrate a close match between vowel pitch and musical pitch in nonsense syllables of Alpine yodelers and in the yodeling of African Pygmies. We will discuss these findings in the context of other ethnomusicological findings, frequently used ( Wiora, 1962 ; Nikolsky, 2015 ) to shed light on prehistoric music or on the origin of music. Studies showing the pivotal role of vowels and their musical qualities in the ontogeny of language and in infant directed speech will be used as further arguments for the musical protolanguage hypothesis.…”

The Overlooked Tradition of “Personal Music” and Its Place in the Evolution of Music

“…Timbral music does not observe "wrong notes": informants are puzzled by questions about musical mistakes, as they believe that any expression is "right" (Ojamaa, 2003). In addition, intervals in timbral-based cultures are not fixed, as they are in frequency-based cultures, but are stretchable (ekmelic) depending on the singer's emotional state (Nikolsky, 2015). A performer, when repeating a song, sets the same lyrics to varying pitches, unaware of pitch discrepancies despite a fine musical ear that is evident whenever he/she sings other styles of music.…”